


Love Never Leaves

by YesBothWays



Series: The Body's Intelligence Could Rival The Mind's [14]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Winter, french pastries, snowstorm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-13 21:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5717521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YesBothWays/pseuds/YesBothWays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delphine and Cosima share a beautiful, snowy day filled with warmth, love, and friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Aura of Mystery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hella-Geek-Monkey](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Hella-Geek-Monkey).



> I was inspired to write a deeply happy Cophine fic, because I feel like a depression has been settling on the Cophine fandom. Late winter is a rough time. I hope everyone finds all the light, warmth, and sustenance they can and remembers to celebrate life!

            Delphine awoke and felt mentally alert right away. She could sense that it was still very early, probably near five in the morning. She would not normally have awoken so early, but the room was uniquely well-lit, though the sun had not begun to rise.   Cosima had drawn the curtain back on their windows before they went to bed in hopes of waking up to the vision of fallen snow after they had heard the weather prediction of a snowstorm. Delphine pushed herself up on her arms. Her body felt heavy even though her mind already felt clear. Everything outside was illuminated by the brightness of a thick covering of snow, and she could see large flakes were still falling thickly near the window.

            She got up and left the warmth of their bed to come to the cold window and look out fully. Cosima was sleeping on her side and turned away from her towards the wall, and she did not even stir when Delphine arose, as Delphine expected. She knew from experience that Cosima was nearly always a heavy and deep sleeper. Outside, no one had risen to leave tracks or clear the walks and an even layer of perfect snow covered the world that lay stretched out beyond their windows. The landscape seemed both familiar and entirely strange, the sight of her own home cast anew.

            For a long moment, a simple experience of wonder came over her as she considered the delicate beauty of the falling snow and almost ethereal, luminous terrain outside. Her heart ached deeply then as she remembered a day many years ago when she and her younger sister, Lyra, had awoken to find a thick covering of snow outside. They rushed through breakfast and raced out into the yard to try and catch some part of the storm. The snow continued to fall all through that day, and they stayed out and remained in that strange and seemingly timeless place, alone together and lost in the experience. The almost magical feel of that prolonged day they spent out together in the snow when they expected the outing to be brief gave a great depth to that small experience of joy they had shared in her memory. She felt that it shone and stood apart from all else she could remember, much like the altered, pristine vision of her familiar setting in this present moment.

            She put her hand to her chest and swallowed hard a few times. She felt herself beginning to cry. So many times, she found herself overcome with grief, but this was not one of them. On this strange, beautiful morning, her heart ached with the memory of herself and Lyra out in the snow, and she found herself filled with a sense of joy much like what they shared that day. She marveled rather than grieving over the profound experience of having loved her sister so much as she did, a pure and enduring love that could never be taken away from her and felt alive still in her heart even far beyond Lyra's death. She recalled a fragment from some poem she had read, lines that spoke of _love that always leaves and yet never leaves_.

            As she kept on remembering the day she spent in the snow with Lyra, she placed her hand against the window and watched a faint ring of fog form around it as the contrasting temperatures met and caused the water vapor to condense. The cooled blood in her veins made an ache reach up her wrist. She found herself standing there with a unique awareness of the heat of the blood flowing through her body. She remembered now the cold, a cold with a depth beyond knowing, on the day years ago now when she had nearly bled to death from a gunshot wound. Her typical sensibilities seemed now to be reversed in these uncommon, early morning hours. That Lyra had died so long ago did not feel a shock or a tragedy and instead like a given, much like the deaths of those whose lives we learn about who lived a hundred years in the past, while the reality that she herself was standing still alive felt to her very strange. She found that her own living, feeling body and the movement even of her thoughts seemed to her uncanny and wondrous. Being alive felt to her like a miracle.

            She turned back to Cosima still sleeping in their bed. She felt her breath come deep and halting as she decided to wake her. She went first to the bathroom. While there, she brushed her teeth quickly at the sink. She let the water in the sink run long enough to grow warm, and she warmed her chilled hand as she washed her hands. She came and climbed back into the bed, got under the covers, and moved in close to Cosima, who did not move.

            Delphine ran her hands over Cosima's back with slow movements and a slightly deep touch. Cosima made the softest sound of acknowledgement after a long moment, as she tried to bring herself awake at the feel of Delphine's hands on her body. Delphine smiled at this and slipped her hand under Cosima's shirt to touch her bare skin that felt almost hot. She moved her hand up her back slowly and pressed her lips to her shoulder.

            "Are you awake?" Delphine asked softly. The question came out in French. Cosima knew enough to understand almost anything she said these days.  

            "Mm-hm," Cosima barely managed to say after a long pause in more of an unconvincingly sound than a statement.

            Delphine laughed very softly at her. She moved Cosima's dreadlocks out of the way and kissed the delicate skin of her neck. Cosima tried harder to wake up at the feel of this and got herself turned over part way in the bed. Delphine ran her hand over Cosima's stomach on top of her shirt. She saw her smiling even though she was barely awake and still had her eyes closed. Delphine kissed her chest over her shirt.

            "Will you come awake for me?" Delphine asked.

            Cosima nodded. She got one eye open about half way. She closed it to smile more fully.

            "There's a beautiful snow outside," Delphine.

            Cosima made her best attempt at a sound of excitement that came as a rumble in her chest that rose up to her throat. She put her arms out over Delphine's shoulders and arched her own back to stretch it. She took a deep breath and sighed. Delphine laughed and thought that Cosima was like a puppy, overcome with sleep and still excitable anyways.

            "You might have to kiss me awake," Cosima said in almost a murmur.

            Delphine laughed softly at this. Cosima still had game even seconds after waking. Delphine kissed all over her neck and her cheeks. She kissed her lips, and Cosima gave a sleepy half of a laugh and seemed pleased. She turned away to yawn and sat herself up at the same time to look at the window. She rubbed her eyes and reached to get her glasses. She pulled them on after a minute and stared out. Delphine turned to look out along with her.

            "There's so much of it!" Cosima said.

            She started to climb out of bed right away to go and see more clearly. She crossed her arms and held her shoulders up against the cold as she neared the window. Delphine got up and swept the thick, down comforter off the bed. She came near Cosima, then she got the blanket around her own shoulders and pulled Cosima's back against her chest. She wrapped them both in the thick, heavy cover. They stood silent together for a long time. Cosima swayed slightly as she leaned back a little against Delphine.

            "Every year, I forget that the naked branches of trees are still beautiful, and then there comes a moment in the middle of winter when I suddenly remember," Cosima said eventually.

            Delphine held Cosima close and noticed more fully the elegant lines of tree branches that appeared almost black in stark contrast with the white snow. They were incredibly beautiful, as Cosima said, certainly as much as they would be in summer when their thick greenery would be lit by orange light and set against a blue sky. And they felt even more necessary to notice with patience and openness now, perhaps made even more profound by their simplicity.

            Cosima's breath made a subtle and rhythmic movement under Delphine's arms and against her chest. She found herself remembering a day years ago when she was still lying in a hospital bed incredibly weak and almost ill from the feel of all the drugs coursing through her body. The gunshot wound in her side and added surgical damage to tissues that included her liver were so muffled by drugs that she felt she had a black hole held within her body. The same drugs dulled her mind and her ability to strategize well.

            She had spent days trying to clear her thoughts enough to make some kind of plans. She was not supposed to be alive, and she imagined that someone would be sent to finish the job. She knew that she was too weakened to be a real player in all this anymore. Still she thought of new angles and misdirections to try. Sarah and the others were constantly keeping watch over her. Mrs. S in particular would stand and watch every move a nurse made near Delphine. She brought in a couple of her own people to fill out the numbers of their constant watch. They were planning to move her, she knew, within a few days, as soon as they could.

            Cosima had come and gone every day until a few days prior to the one she was remembering. She and Scott had crafted a first attempt at a gene therapy for her. They had intentionally suppressed her immune system to try and keep her body from rejecting the sudden intrusion, and they kept her away from any chance of infection for a few days. Delphine felt a worry pass through her when Cosima arrived in her room late at night and questioned her. She told Delphine she got an all clear from Scott, which was comforting. That night, for the first time, she carefully climbed into the bed beside Delphine.

            She could feel how weak Cosima still was from the gene therapy. She lay with her heart beating. A deep fear beyond mere rationality broke through her mind as Cosima placed her arm across Delphine's chest and lay close to her. She thought, _They will see. They will know._ Her body pricked with the terror of having her love for Cosima used against her once more. She felt her jaw tensing. Cosima reached up to touch her face and felt this, as well. She had no idea what Cosima thought, but she leaned up to kiss Delphine's other cheek once.

            As her mind cleared more and they lay together in silence, Delphine thought over the sequence of DNA and the changes she hoped her taking place in Cosima's body. She could feel her breath moving in and out, a pattern that felt frail and yet incredibly strong both at the same time. She always found Cosima's body a miracle of science. Still, the gentle weight of her arm across Delphine's heart and the tenderness of her mouth when she placed it against her skin made her own body respond with the sweetest, most desperate ache of both longing and fulfillment. Cosima's body and the rest of her beyond was more of a miracle than science could ever explain fully. For once, Delphine found that she did not need to understand anymore than she did. She turned her face towards Cosima and rested with no sense of control over her own fate and enclosed instead in an aura of mystery.

            As she kept standing now with Cosima's body pressed against her own and her arms wrapped around her with Cosima's arms against her own, Delphine felt a reverence almost beyond language for the depths of what could not be revealed or controlled through rational processes of thought. She ran her hands gently across Cosima's throat and over her stomach. Cosima made a soft sound of pleasure and kept on leaning back into their embrace.

            "You are more beautiful to me now than you have ever been," Delphine whispered to her in French.

            Cosima took a deep breath at the sound of Delphine's voice. She considered her words a moment as she was still sleepy enough to have to give her mind some space to translate. She turned around and let them come into a slow and instinctive kiss. Delphine held Cosima's face with one hand as she kept the blanket from falling fully. The kiss remained incredibly tender. Cosima leaned back after and adjusted her glasses.

            "I'm jealous of your brushed teeth," Cosima declared as she unwrapped herself from the blanket, which made Delphine laugh a little. "I'll be right back."

            "Okay," Delphine said, as Cosima dodged into the bathroom almost skipping with the energy of the cold in the room.

            Delphine straightened their sheets and top blankets, then she put the comforter over their bed again. Cosima came back, and she went around to her usual side and rather quickly drank half a glass of water from the night before. She jumped onto the bed and crossed her legs to sit before the air fully settled out of the comforter. She bounced a little bit and grinned eagerly.

            "I'm wide awake now," Cosima declared, obviously still quite sleepy.

            She patted the covers beside her to get Delphine to climb into bed, then she scrambled to pull down all the covers and get under them again. Delphine climbed in beside her as Cosima tried to help draw the covers down for her and already began to drag her into a kiss. Cosima made a soft grumble of impatience as Delphine broke their kiss and got herself fully under the covers and into a good position. So Delphine turned after she did and put her hand along the side of Cosima's neck to pull her into a deep kiss that would satisfy her. Cosima made the softest sound of pleasure and seemed almost to stop breathing as they began to kiss one another with a slow and earnest tenderness.

            They were matched to one another already in a hundred ways as lovers that they knew. At such an early hour as this, when the edges of the mind felt vulnerable and open in a manner usually kept back for states of dreaming alone, they found a new one. As a result, their kisses felt vulnerable in some new way, and Delphine could feel how brave in intimacy and trustworthy Cosima's was almost as if these took shape under her hands. Delphine felt a sense of wonder at how vast Cosima could feel to her at times such as this one. She was always being revealed anew at some previously unseen angle of intuitive insight.

            In the cold air of the room, the gentle heat that their bodies created under the shelter of the blankets seemed almost a living creation itself, made of the love they shared. They undressed one another with great tenderness, and the depths of the passion that they felt with one another came to the surface this morning lacking the usual urgency and heaviness that would define the sex they shared. They kissed with deep and lingering kisses and found a pattern that felt almost as life-sustaining a rhythm as breathing. They touched one another carefully and remained unselfconscious given the skill they had with one another in bed, cultivated over time. They found a position on this morning , despite all the times their bodies had been entangled, that felt entirely new. Lying beside one another with their hips angled out, they managed to embrace and continue kissing while they both touched one another.

            After what felt like several minutes of slowly facilitating the shift, Delphine let go of her focus on the feel of Cosima's touch entirely. She allowed all the energy of their lovemaking to pour into Cosima, who became overcome by the experience almost at once. She kept her own touch on Cosima's body slow, as she brought her up into an orgasm. As it passed, Cosima dragged her into a deep kiss. She did not let her go again until she had shifted the dynamic over and made Delphine's voice break in her throat with a sequence of moans as she came to an orgasm herself.

            They kept right on kissing afterwards as if nothing had changed. They made out for what must have been more than an hour. Delphine found that she lost a sense of her own age somehow, a rare feeling but one she had noticed before, especially with Cosima. She might have been any age, a teenager or decades older than she was at this point in her life. She considered how vivid the energy in her body could feel, as if she knew, contained within a single moment, how each cell in her was imbued with life. She felt that Cosima could draw her out somehow into all these new and more complete versions of herself, as if she somehow awoke the life force inside Delphine. She nearly laughed at her own thoughts on this strange morning, as intuitive and unfettered by rational thoughts as they were.


	2. A Little Sugar and a Lot of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delphine makes Cosima a breakfast of magnificent sweets. They pack up the rest and head over, when Donnie wants to wrangle the clone club family together for a day in the snow. A fiercely competitive snowball fight results.

            Cosima turned to look at Delphine with a quirky, halfway grin. She glanced suddenly towards the rest of the room, and she scrambled up onto her arms. She took a deep breath.

            "Oh, yeah! The snow!" Cosima said in delight. She glanced over the pile of bed covers as if orienting herself, as she added, "I forgot there was a world beyond this bed."

            She dragged her glasses off the bedside table and put them on to see out and went quiet for a long moment. Delphine took a deep breath herself. She sat up and felt fully awake now. Her body and her mind were both filled to brimming after only a short time of being awake, and their day had not even begun.

            "Should we go down and eat?" Delphine asked.

            "I suppose so," Cosima said, clearly still undecided. "Will you make out with me more in the kitchen?" she added with a delighted grin.

            "Or course, I will," Delphine said.

            She leaned over to kiss Cosima who gave a laugh that came over her almost as an overwhelmed giggle. Delphine laughed a bit along with her. Cosima leaned all the way over until her head hit the bed. Delphine kissed her neck.

            "And then the living room?" Cosima asked.

            "Yes," Delphine said in a tone of severity.

            "Then I can bear getting up," Cosima said.

            As if to prove this, she got out of the bed at once. She stood in the cold air still naked and with a aura of bravado. She dug around in the drawers of their dresser to toss some comfortable clothes at Delphine and throw some on herself. She shook herself and rubbed her hands as if to ward off the cold.

            Delphine got up, as well, and they came downstairs together. She stood and considered the contents of their fridge as Cosima put a kettle of water on to boil and got mugs and teabags put together. They still had a few apples in the bottom drawers that were keeping still since they had taken a trip to an apple orchard with most of their close friends in the late fall. Delphine had been thinking they should do something special with this last handful of their share of the apples they had picked. She was considering bringing out some cheeses to have with them, but this did not seem quite special enough for such a morning as this one. She turned to look at Cosima, who smiled at her slowly.

            "I think I need to make you something with French butter," Delphine said. Cosima gave an "mm" sound and raised an eyebrow. "And also something with chocolate," Delphine added as she looked over her face.

            "I'm sure you're right," Cosima said with conviction, then asked for clarification, "Is that two things or one with both?"

            "Two things," Delphine said.

            She was picturing both pastries and hot chocolate in her mind. She went to get her cookbook and leaned over it on the counter. She considered her recipes, until she had grown quite severe with her concentrated thoughts. Cosima came and dodged in between Delphine and her cookbook. Delphine put an arm around her waist and gave Cosima her full attention with a soft smile. They kissed several times, and she lost her thought before regaining it again.

            "I'm going to make chaussons aux pommes," Delphine said.

            "Apple… something freakishly delicious?" Cosima said.

            "It means 'apple slippers,'" Delphine said, "For their shape."

            "Obviously, I want that. Who wouldn't?" Cosima replied.

            They had their tea with some crackers and cheese to tide them over, as they peeled and cut enough apples for Delphine's recipe. Cosima seemed eager to go outside. She said she wanted to be the first to step in the snow. She decided to go to the corner store, which would just be opening for the day, for some cream for their hot chocolate. Delphine made the pastry, while Cosima was out.

            When she got back, Cosima stood and watched Delphine expertly craft all the pastries. She put them in the oven. Cosima went to sit at the table and kissed her shoulder along the way. Delphine put a pan of cream and milk on to heat. She slowly melted chocolate into it, then she spiced it with vanilla, cinnamon, and a bit of chili. She tasted it until it seemed perfect.

            She became aware of her own concentrated face as she stood considering the taste and remembered her father making hot chocolate for herself and Lyra when they were girls. He always took incredibly meticulous care to make certain it would not burn or become overly spiced for them. She found that this memory of her father and the similarities between the two of them, especially this intensely concentrated and practical nature of their love when it ran the deepest, made her smile and feel connected to him today. She often found herself conflicted over any shared sense of identity with her father, as she mostly associated his life with deep suffering. She often thought that he suffered needlessly and perhaps the most for proving helpless when it came to protecting those nearest to him. She feared to share any part of his fate. This morning, the link she felt between herself and her father seemed a simple, pure thread connecting the good in both of their lives and even in her sister's life. On this strange morning, she felt as if nothing had ever truly touched her in life except for love.

            She sat the two cups of hot chocolate down at the table to cool. She could see Cosima's eagerness to taste it and knew that she would not do well with waiting. She touched her shoulder to drag her attention away from staring down at the cup. She leaned down to kiss her once and ended up kneeling down. Cosima turned in her chair, and Delphine moved in between her knees. They ended up making out long enough that they found the hot chocolate had cooled enough to drink when they finally turned back to it. Delphine drew a chair around to sit near Cosima as they waited for the oven timer.  

            When Delphine switched out the pans in the oven to bake a second round of pastries, she plated up several of the hot, finished pastries for them to eat. Cosima stole the plate and moved them into the living room. Delphine came and piled with her under a blanket on the couch. Cosima's phone rang in her coat pocket, and she tumbled off the couch and scrambled over to retrieve it. As she got herself under the blanket again, Delphine could tell already that it was Allison on the other line.

            "Here," Cosima said. "Let me put you on speakerphone."

            "Are your cars dug out yet? Hello, Delphine," Allison said.

            "Bonjour, Allison," Delphine said.

            "Not yet," Cosima said. "The garage is still blocked."

            "Could you make it to the street on foot? I can come pick you up if you're interested in coming over. Donnie says these first few hours are the best," Allison said.

            They could hear Donnie speaking adamantly in the background. Allison went quiet to listen to him. Delphine smiled at Cosima in the quiet.

            "Apparently, it's the perfect mix of fluffy and wet," Allison said.

            "Champion snow," Donnie said near the phone.

            "He's going out to finish clearing paths. Sarah and Felix are on their way now," Allison said.

            "We're being invited over to play in the snow," Cosima said.

            Delphine could tell that Allison deliberately ignored Cosima's teasing tone.

            "Donnie says it's perfect snow, but only if we don't miss this window. Oscar and Gemma aren't here today," Allison said.

            "Where are they?" Delphine asked in surprise.

            "They went with Jessie. They're all out towing. It's going to be a big day for his business today. So the rest of us are on our own here," Allison said.

            Cosima seemed terribly amused by this. She gave Delphine a look that said, _Why the hell not?_ Delphine nodded at her adamantly.

            "If you can come get us, we're ready in twenty. Otherwise, we can get to you as soon as the garage gets cleared out," Cosima said.

            "Oh, good," Allison said. "If it went to waste, I don't think Donnie would recover fully. I'll be there to get you in half an hour," Allison said.

            "Sounds good," Cosima said.

            "Okay," Allison said with a high lilt of finality and hung up.

            Cosima reached out to snatch a pastry from the plate with one hand as she turned her phone off with the other. She had a small fit over how good it was while Delphine laughed in delight at her. The oven timer went off, and Delphine went to rescue the rest of the pastries from the oven. The two of them got ready, and Delphine loaded their remaining pastries into a basket with a cloth inside and folded it over the top. They trekked out into the brightness of the snow in order to be on time, and Allison picked them up promptly. Donnie, Felix, and Sarah were all outside with shovels when they arrived. Donnie appeared to be the only one doing any real work.

            "No, you've got to really fluff it up," Donnie was saying and shaking snow expertly from his shovel. "Otherwise it gets hard. It's tiring, but it's worth it."  

            "Sure thing," Felix said with mild dismissal standing with his shovel. He eyed Delphine. "Looking good, sisters," he said to her and Cosima both.

            Cosima came and hugged both him and Sarah overly aggressively. Sarah wrestled with her in return. They acted like they hadn't seen each other in weeks, and it had been two days. Felix rolled his eyes at them.

            "Oh, good, the sibling you've always wanted and never had," he said. "Made manic and aggressive by the presence of snowfall like some kind of wild, Siberian husky having primitive instincts. Watch out for her," he said to Delphine of Sarah.

            "I've got my own trouble to watch out for," Delphine said, meaning Cosima, who had already made a snowball and threatened to hit Delphine with it. Delphine gave her the best serious, big sister look she could manage. Cosima paused and smiled. She was not quite ready to start a war. So she hit the mailbox instead.

            Helena came outside carrying her daughter, Maggie. Delphine greeted Sarah with kisses on the cheek and went over to Helena and Maggie. They were speaking to one another in Ukrainian, and Maggie switched to English as soon as Delphine approached them. She reached out for her suddenly, and Delphine and Helena traded her for the basket of pastries with expert skill.

            "What have you been doing today?" Delphine asked Maggie.

            "Eating pancakes," Maggie said.

            "Yes?" Delphine said. "Are you quite full then?" Maggie shook her head no. "Good, because I brought something good for you to try, if you like."

            Delphine and Helena both helped Maggie get a pastry for herself. She picked the smallest one for herself. She wanted to go with Helena to offer them to everyone else. Delphine came back to stand near Cosima and found Allison on her cell phone briefly.

            "That was Oscar and Gemma," Allison said. "Checking in."

            "On their career day project?" Felix said with a smile. He turned to Sarah. Sarah laughed already.

            "We'd have had to send them to the station with Art otherwise," Sarah said. "Homicide detective is the least controversial career in our entire family."

            "We'd have taken them to the lab with us," Delphine said.

            "I would not let my children set foot in a Dyad lab if you threatened to dissolve me in acid if I refused," Allison said. "No. Laugh if you all like. Jessie is very responsible. He made everyone a pancake breakfast this morning and packed them all a lunch. Oscar is running the radio. Gemma is monitoring the switches for the pulleys. They're seeing what a respectable, personal business looks like."

            "They're missing out on the snow," Donnie said.

            Both his tone and the way Allison patted his chest implied that he had said this several times today already and been ignored.

            "They're seeing the snow, honey," Allison said. "It's just one day. They were excited to go. And they'll be ahead with their project when school opens again. And they'll stop asking to come with us to bubbles."

            She gave him a severe look. Helena gave Donnie a go at Delphine's basket and distracted him. Everyone asked what the pastries were. Delphine gave them a brief description.

            "These are great," Donnie said. "Why didn't you bring these to the Christmas extravaganza?"

            "You have to save some sweetness for after Christmas," Delphine said. "Where are Kira and Mrs. S?"

            "Oh, she's not feeling too good. A bit of a fever," Sarah said. "Just a cold, looks like. They're at S's."

            "Let's save one of these for the two of them, for later," Delphine said.

            She took off her gloves and stole a couple of pastries to take inside and stash away. She covered a plate and sat them on top of the fridge. Helena was eating a pastry when she came outside, and came to put her arm around Delphine.

            "You bring us sweetness," Helena declared.

            Maggie had run up to Delphine to be picked up again.

            "I'm not the only one," Delphine said, as she got Maggie on her hip.

            She only stayed for a minute before she wanted down again. She went to get Cosima's attention, and Delphine smiled as Cosima bent low on her knees to give Maggie her full attention right away. She wondered what it must be like to be a child surrounding by so many loving adults. The isolation of her own childhood gave her no experience to reference. She watched Maggie turn from Cosima to Sarah to Felix, before she finally ran over to Donnie.

            "She is so happy," Helena said, observing the same thing. She smiled at Delphine.

            "She'll never be lonely," Delphine said.

            "No," Helena agreed.

            Delphine turned to Helena and considered how well she must understand the experience of a lonely childhood. As if mirroring her thoughts, Helena put her hand on Delphine's back again. She smiled at her.

            "We will never be lonely again anymore, either," Helena said.

            Delphine nodded at this but could not find the right words to say.

            "Okay, snowball fight," Donnie announced.

            "Yeah!" Sarah said aggressively.  

            "Oh, no. God," Felix said as if personally targeted by the idea.

            "What else do you do with snow this perfect?" Donnie said lightly. "Come on."

            "Fine," Felix said.

            "Let's make teams," Sarah said.

            "No! Sarah, no. You always do this, get all crazy. And it makes it less fun," Felix said.

            He straightened his collar. Sarah got his arm and dragged it behind his back. She kicked at his shoe. He fought back and seemed irritated, as if he had suffered years of such persecution.  

            "As long as I'm not on your team, then it's fine," Felix said. "I have years of payback to reap upon you this day."

            Sarah left him alone. He adjusted his coat more agitatedly and gave Sarah a challenging glance. Sarah was eying Cosima and Delphine.

            "I get Cos'," Sarah said.

            "You're appointing yourself team captain?" Felix said, making fun of her.

            "It's only fair," Allison said. "House rules. No couples on the same team."

            "That's right," Donnie said.

            "I will go with Delphine and Felix," Allison said.

            "I'll go with Sarah and Cosima," Donnie said.

            "I will stay with Maggie," Helena said.

            "Which team, though?" Donnie asked.

            "We could flip for it," Sarah said, half as a joke.

            Donnie took this completely seriously. He got a quarter from the ashtray in the van. They flipped, and Sarah called heads while Cosima called tails. Donnie appointed them heads, since Sarah spoke first. They lost, so Helena and Maggie joined Delphine, Allison, and Felix's team.

            As soon as the teams were decided, Cosima shot Delphine a sharp look. Delphine gave her a calm, collected stare. The aura of competitiveness took over right away, as they both planned to mastermind the game. Cosima's team went around back.

            "Okay," Delphine said. "We're going to need multiple strategies if we're going to get the upper hand on Cosima. How about you two take Sarah?" She pointed at both Allison and Felix.

            Felix still looked annoyed.

            "We'll cut through the garage," Allison said. "And come at her from two directions."

            "Now you're talking," Felix said and got more into the spirit of the game.

            "I'll take Cosima," Delphine said. "Where's the most cover? The driveway?"

            "Yes," Allison said.

            "That's where she'll be," Delphine said. "You two can handle Donnie?" she said to Helena and Maggie.

            "We will destroy him," Helena said.

            They all split up. Delphine went to the driveway and got low. She knew that Cosima would step where the snow was quietest and use cover to gain the advantage. She saw one of her boots appear at the other end of the driveway, and she began to creep her way along the fence. She felt her heart began to beat harder, as she grew swept up in the spirit of the game herself.

            She heard an uproar from the backyard that must have been Helena and Maggie discovering Donnie. He gave an exaggerated cry, and both Maggie and Helena's voices rang out in delighted laughter. She got a snowball in her hands silently as she snuck around Allison's van. She heard what must have been Felix and Allison ambushing Sarah from behind the house. Cosima went too still, and Delphine knew that they had found each other. She stopped breathing for a moment. Then she felt a flash of rebellion rise up in contest in her chest.

            "Want to surrender?" Delphine said in order to pretend to intimidate Cosima.

            "In your dreams," Cosima said.

            Cosima jumped up and pushed snow off the top of the van. Most of it missed, but a little bit showered over Delphine. She rushed around the front of the van and barely clipped Cosima with her snowball as Cosima disappeared around the back of it. The next several minutes were filled with a heated exchange, as they dodged around the van and nearly cleared it of snow, trying to get one another. Delphine used her height for an advantage and jumped up to throw over the roof, and Cosima caught on to this quickly.

            Cosima made a great shot that went under the van through the low clearance and hit Delphine in the ankle that impressed Delphine enough that she shouted an affirmation. But she got Cosima with her own trick and pushed snow from the roof onto her, while she stood a moment and celebrated. Finally, Delphine loaded several snowballs into her arm and rushed Cosima. She was not ready for that and ran, tumbling and snatching snowballs as fast as she could.

            They pelted one another and ended up dodging around a few evergreens in the backyard. Allison and Felix had Sarah pinned down behind a tree nearby. Sarah would make a snowball, whip around the tree trunk, and nail one of them, before they could get off more than a single throw each. She was a great shot and still holding her own despite the tag team. Sarah did not have the resources to help Cosima and stuck to her guns.

            Cosima and Delphine were both practically covered in snow and completely breathless. Delphine jumped and rattled a tree branch that covered them both in snow. She was about to run and snatch at a branch over Sarah's head, but Sarah saw it coming.

            Sarah rushed out. She got Allison in the chest and tackled Felix into the snow. They began to roll around with her trying to rub snow into his hair. Allison tried to rescue her by hitting Sarah with several snowballs in the back. Sarah rolled off Felix and jumped to her feet. Everyone stood poised, out in the open, and ready to escalate the game or change strategies.

            At that moment, Donnie came running slowly around the side of the house. He was giving an exaggerated, prolonged yell. Maggie ran after him along a pathway he had carefully made earlier. He ineffectually scooped up snow and tossed it towards her, failing on purpose. She got a snowball together, and he held still. Helena came behind her laughing hysterically at her daughter's happiness and Donnie's theatrics. He got down on his knees, acting helpless, as Maggie made another snowball. She got closer and hit him right in the chest. He fell over dramatically.

            All the other adults became suddenly aware of the intensity and severity of their competition and a little abashed. Donnie was the only one playing for both teams at the same time, keeping it all fun, and not trying to win. Delphine saw Allison's eyes shining with tears, as she smiled and watched Donnie with her hands over her mouth. She looked at Cosima, who gave her a tender look now and smiled. Delphine glanced over at the others. Felix gave a mistrusting look towards Sarah. She looked rather untrustworthy, as she eyed him as if planning something. Cosima saw this and, without a word, ran and tackled Sarah into a snow bank. The sudden turn caught Sarah by surprise. The two of them wrestled around while laughing and tried to jamb snow down one another's collars, practically growling and threatening one another with absolute ruin.

            "You won," Donnie was saying to Maggie. "What do you want to do now?" He asked her this mimicking the tone of the question, "What are you going to do next?" that was traditionally answered with, "I'm going to Disneyland!"

            "Let's make an ice house for Kira!" Maggie said.

            "An igloo?" Donnie said surprised and delighted. Maggie nodded at him. "That's a great idea!"

            He stood up and came over to the others. Sarah and Cosima were the only ones still at it. They were tired though and barely keeping it up.

            "As soon as these animals we brought over are done playing," Donnie said.

            Sarah and Cosima turned to him. They both clipped him with handfuls of snow, as they got up suddenly. They calmed down then.

            "Ugh! Clones!" Donnie joked, as he brushed the snow off himself.

            "You think we can really build one?" Felix asked.

            He seemed much more interested in this game. And he seemed to have regained some of his lost childhood dignity in the previous game. He rubbed his hands together to warm them.            

            "Why not?" Cosima said coming over to put her hands on Delphine and form an official truce between them.

            "Yeah, it's just physics," Delphine said through a grin as she touched Cosima back.

            Sarah laughed at the two of them and called them nerds. They all worked adamantly for the next couple of hours building a rather excellent igloo. They used decorative, evergreen bushes trimmed flat on the top and sides and some light plywood from the garage for structural support. Donnie was so much better than the rest of them at working with the snow and changing its texture to pack it down and make it sturdy that he ended up in the lead.

            "You're a Snow King," Felix told him and patted his shoulder.

            "Allison used to call me a Snow Prince," Donnie said.

            "You're been upgraded today," Sarah only half-joked and patted his chest. Donnie looked distinctly proud.

            They finally came inside, and Allison made both hot, spiced cider and red wine. Kira and Mrs. S came in Mrs. S's truck. Sarah and Felix went outside with Kira to get inside her igloo for a while. When they came back, they bundled Kira into a blanket and offered her the pastry Delphine saved her and a cup of cider. She seemed delighted and overjoyed, even though she looked tired.

            "That's the first she's eaten," Mrs. S. said. "That's a good sign."

            "A little sugar and a lot of love goes a long way," Delphine said.

            "I'll say," Mrs. S. said with a warm smile.

            "Did you get yours?" Delphine asked.

            "My what, love?" Mrs. S. said.

            Delphine went and got Mrs. S.'s pastry and brought it back to her on a small plate.

            "Oh, you shouldn't have!" Mrs. S. said, obviously pleased.

            "Of course, we should have," Delphine said.

            She put her hand on Mrs. S.'s shoulder for a moment. Mrs. S. took Delphine's hand and squeezed it. She took a bite of her pastry and said it was lovely.

            "There were times when I never thought we'd get here," Mrs. S. said, as she looked over the room.

            "I never knew such a thing as this existed," Delphine said.

            "It's not all just survival and keeping out ahead of trouble," Mrs. S. said. "Though you couldn't have proven that by me for a long time."

            "I'm glad there's another side to things," Delphine said.

            "That makes at least two of us, love," Mrs. S. said.

**Author's Note:**

> Delphine's fragment of poetry is from "The Winter Wood Arrives" by Mary Oliver


End file.
